Fulton County Schools Partner with ATS to Curb School Bus Passing

Fulton County, GA — School bus stop arm cameras will be activated on February 8 with a 30-day warning period to allow drivers to become familiar with the new safety initiative. Fulton County, the fourth largest school district in Georgia with 96,000 students is the 13th school district in the state to partner with American Traffic Solutions (ATS) to deploy CrossingGuard®, ATS’ new technology to help school districts address the growing problem of illegal passing of school buses that are stopped and boarding or disembarking children.

“Providing safe travel for the children who ride our 760 buses to and from school is our main priority with this safety program,” said Interim Superintendent Kenneth Zeff. “These cameras will allow us to better inform the public that serious consequences can occur when you run the stop arm.”

CrossingGuard®, ATS’ school bus stop arm technology automatically detects if a vehicle passes the stopped school bus within the enforced zone. High-quality violation images of a vehicle’s license plate and a video that captures the entire violation event provide law enforcement the evidence they need to effectively prosecute these violations. In Georgia, the penalty for a first stop-arm violation will warrant the vehicle’s owner a $300 fine for the first violation, a $750 fine for the second, and a third violation in a five-year period will result in a $1,000 fine. Fines will commence at the end of the warning period, March 7th.

“Our bus drivers’ deal with the frustration of motorists ignoring their school bus stop arm every day,” said R. Sam Ham, executive director of the school system’s Transportation Department. “We believe this new technology will ease their mind, protect the children that they are devoted to, and create a greater awareness in the community about safe and legal driving practices.”

AboutAmerican Traffic Solutions:ATS is proud to be the market leader in road safety camera installations in North America. ATS has more than 3,200 installed red-light, speed and school bus stop arm safety cameras serving more than 30 million people. ATS is the largest school bus camera service provider in Georgia with contracts in Carroll County, Carrollton City, Clarke County, Clayton County, Cobb County, Douglas County, Houston County, Muscogee County, Newton County, Paulding County, and the City of Marietta. For more information, visit www.atscrossingguard.com.